OP14.01: Correlation between pelvic floor ultrasound findings and symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction during pregnancy

To determine the correlation between symptoms of urinary incontinence, prolapse and anorectal dysfunction, and morphologic findings on ultrasound at 12-14 weeks and at 28-32 weeks of gestation. This is a planned secondary analysis of a prospective cohort of pregnant women who consented to fill out questionnaires on pelvic floor dysfunction and to transperineal ultrasound at 12-14 weeks and at 28-32 weeks gestation. We compared bladder neck descent, urethral rotation, retrovesical angle, pelvic organ descent, genital hiatus dimensions and anal sphincter defects between women with and without symptoms using the unpaired t-test and the two-tailed Fisher's exact test. We used linear mixed effects models to define the correlation between ultrasound findings and symptoms' severity assessed by questionnaire's scores. Women with urinary incontinence had increased bladder neck descent (p = 0.02), wider urethral rotation (p < 0.01), wider retrovesical angle (p = 0.04) and wider genital hiatus at Valsalva (p < 0.01) in a time-dependent fashion. After controlling for age, BMI and parity, the only persistent predictor of severity of urinary incontinence was the retrovesical angle. We did not observe a correlation between any ultrasound findings marker and symptoms of prolapse or anorectal dysfunction. In pregnant women, symptoms of urinary incontinence, but not symptoms of prolapse and anorectal dysfunction, are associated with anatomical changes evidenced on transperineal ultrasound. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.